Terschelling - day 3

The weather has changed for the worse on our last day here on the island. Unfortunately.
But we will not stay inside, so it's back on our bikes to the beach again after we checked out of our hotel. We left our bags there, it will be picked up by Zeelen, the firm where we rented the bikes.
Fingers crossed that will go well. We'll find out when we turn in the bikes at the end of the day. That won't be until 17.30 when the bike rental will close. Our ferry leaves at 18.30.
So, we have a whole day ahead of us.

Once on the beach I took out my long lens again to capture some more birds. It didn't take long before I spotted this cormorant.
It allowed me to approach it very closely and didn’t seem to be impressed by my presence at all. But the closer I came and looked the more I became convinced something was very wrong with this bird. When it stretched its wings I saw that the left wing had huge holes in it, as if feathers were missing and/or damaged. What could I do? I couldn’t help this poor animal.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Meanwhile it kept on cleaning and brushing itself, still not bothered by my presence and after a while I saw the wing getting better and better until it had a normal shape again. All the feathers were back in place, dried by the strong wind coming from behind.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
Then it turned around, facing the sea, and I guessed it was now time for the breast and belly feathers to dry.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

I had enough photos by now and we all went to a beach pavilion nearby to warm up. Hot chocolate and tomatoe soup.
When we came outside again, the bird was gone.


Drizzle started on the way back to the village.
Later on that turned into a downpoor. We were wet to the bones when we arrived in West-Terschelling. We went into 'Het wakend oog' a coffee house where we dried up again and waited until we could hand over our bikes and collect our luggage again. Perfect service!


Then we had to wait one more hour for the ferry. All went well and we were at home again around 21.30.